phase 3-update 3

So, what the heck has Bruce actually done this last week since the sea trial trip? Here is the list, if for no other reason than to have the joy of crossing them off the TODO list once AGAIN!:

• Gartside here to replace packing on shaft seal
• ordered replacement batteries from Nanaimo Marine (Rolls-Surrette, one of few true deep cycle batteries, made in Nova Scotia)
• picked up outboard motor at shop in Victoria
• parts for new outboard tank and installed
• new tethers for harnesses; added snap shackle to make it easy to disconnect
• repainted length indicators on anchor chain
• repainted windlass
• cleaned out dried mud in anchor locker
• >repaired lingering water leaks
• >repaired/improved backup foot-pump in galley for sea water and fresh water; cleaned all bronze fittings and added new block valve.
• new positive latch on anchor locker door
• replaced oil in windlass gear box
• greased/checked steering cables
• put on chaff guard on fuel tank vent line
• bimini completed (by Hank) and installed
• marked/colour coded dock lines and genakker lines
• purchased ATN sock for Genakker
• installed drinking water filter
• removed jack line pad eyes and took to shop to have steel backing plates made up [ ready Monday??]
• measured up lee cloths for aft cabin
• booked Blackline to weld/repair life-line fittings
• called re used life raft: Monday/tuesday?
• tracked down compass expert, nothing done yet
• paid annual moorage contract at Canoe Cove [ouch!!...multiple boat units!!]
• tracked down Type 1 life jacket
• got my hair cut!!
• re-scheduled travel to Saudi

I have NOT yet located the elusive camera cable so I have no new photos to upload to Blog.
I'm off to forage for food and put some ale into the ship's grog storage for later this evening.

Phase 2 -Update 2

Quick update and some local news:

> took in Genaker to have sock installed;it is now back on board and will make using this sail a piece of cake.
> Hank showed up and did final install of bimini along with the side panels; the design works and looks good. In Hank's words " it is not often that a project is both functional and looks good". He did this to our spec , not something he had done before and it looks good.
> I repaired the plumbing problem we had on the VIA trip, wherein the foot pump for the sea water [ to use for rinsing,etc to reduce water usage] also had a 3-way valve to allow it to be used as manual pump for the fresh water. However, the 3-way could be set to have all 3 connections hydraulically connected : the result was we ended up with sea water filling the fresh water tank. I've installed a ball valve on the line from the fresh water tank to prevent this happening again.
> tracked down lingering small water leak; i think they are all now fixed...will see [hear?]
> I had a quick chat with another Valiant that dropped anchor last night, "Faneui" ..this is the Valiant robin and I swapped photo's with 3 years ago; they had tried to catch up to us while we were inching our way homeward after our engine 'problem'. They motored over on their way out and remembered that we "won the race we had".....

Local news:
> you may not have heard but they have now recovered a 4th foot on a beach; there have been 4 right feet found on beaches in the gulf islands and near Vancouver. No speculation as to origin yet!
> guy who has taken over the old office of Taylor'd charters is an IT guy who is using it as a "home " office.... met him because he tracked me down- he found my boat note book at the phone booth[ my brain/memory!!] and managed to find me via a receipt from UK sails...good detective work. Also met his neighbor who is on exec of N.Sidney Yacht club who invited me over to see the club some time,etc. He also mentioned that he has delivered boats from Hawaii; on his last trip the Pacific High forced them to sail north of Vancouver Island! and return via inside passage. He also pointed out 2 boats on the hard being repaired -- they were boats leaving here to join last weekend's Swiftsure race; one boat went aground on rock outside of the marina , the other on Zero Rock. The later has major damage to his keel and they have to cut away his interior to repair it -- ouch!

PS: will upload some photo's when I find the cable I need to transfer between camera and computer [ I had it yesterday but it appears to have gone walkabout!!]

Phase 2- update 1

I've just learned that my trip to Saudi has been postponed by 2 weeks; so that puts paid the original work plan; i'm trying to confirm new flights then decide how much work to do now before I leave for Saudi,etc.

In the meantime, i've added some photo's from the "sea trials" with Stewart and Terry. The photo of the "the tool" is the brass washer I made into a compass adjustment screwdriver with the help of the trusty Dremel tool.... not sure how I got along without the Dremel before now.
The infamous "tool" at work...unfortunately the compass is still not correct.


The genakker that will soon be tamed by a ATN sock.

The Coyote canvas owner, Hank, here is doing a test fit of the new bimini
---------------------

Start of "phase 2"

Stewart and I arrive on Sunday May , one day behind schedule due to mud slide west of Golden. We waited for a while, were told that the road may not open at all that day so we decided to head south via the crowsnest route. This added about 500 km to the trip; we overnighted in Hope and arrived about noon on Sunday.
I got up the mast and installed the repaired wind transducer which now works!! I went up again to the spreaders to clean off the moss that had grown underneath; i didn't need to worry about an upper body workout that day.

Terry came over Monday evening and Tuesday morning we got the new battens for the mainsail to replace the old ones that were severly twisted due to improper flaking of the sail over winter.

We tested the drogue: this worked well but the retrieval was a bit of a rodeo. I'll need to add an eye splice at the end of each bridle to facilitate bringing it in via a winch. Also the storage bag Neil is making is critical, since pulling it out of a duffel bag results in a large rat's nest that needs to be sorted before deploying it; this is all well and good in the gulf islands in 10 kts of wind - it would be a real rodeo in storm conditions when you would be doing this for real.

We spent the night at Montigue harbour, then used the next day [yesterday] to adjust compass [ not a success] and test fly the various storm sails and genakker. All was successful other than the compass adjustment.

Today we sailed off the buoy and out to Satellite channel before turning on the engine for the final run home. PS: the batteries barely got the engine started so it is definately time to retire these old guys.

As luck would have it there was a 'master mariner' [ not sure that that is , but it is on his business card!] at the boat next door when we arrived. I asked him about compass adjustment, he said it sounded like our adjusters were maxed out and gave me some things to do. If that fails, i'll have to resort to spending some partial BU's to get it done by a pro.

Stewart and I have cleaned up the boat, will have a pub meal and tackle winches tomorrow before Stewart flies back tomorrow evening.

Over and out,
Bruce

Top is the old tank wrestled out of its lair, below is new, "neater(?)" installation with new tank on the left

End of Phase 1 -- update

So, here we are on day??.... not sure but it seems like a long time. Actually it is April 29 so that makes it Day 19!!!

It has been a while since i've bored anyone with our latest trials and tribulations.

Hot Water Heater:

This turned into the "project from hell": it was almost 5 days to remove the old tank which barely made it out of the hatch. It was heavy and had metal feet that were snagging on insulation making it next to impossible to move. It was removed and out the companion way...at one time I had rope around my neck supporting tank as I backed out of the cabin where it lives!

New tank reflects some improvements: plastic housing not metal, solid foam insulation, not household fiberglass,etc. It is lighter and slippery so it went in very easy. Not so easy was rearranging the piping to make it "neater". The accumulator tank needed to be replaced, so I made decision to put in new variable speed pump which eliminates the need for tank and runs quieter [ in theory]. This was all in but there were leaks in the brass fittings, which meant dooing them all over again. Turns out they need more than 2 wraps of Teflon tape to seal. After re-checking all 34 hose clamps and pressure testing, all is wel. EXCEPT that it seems to be almost as noisy as the previous pump, albeit it a different noise. The plan was to test with cold water, then the electric heating then the glycol circulation from the the engine.

Of course that requires running the engine!! I was concerned about glycol leaks since there are 6 brass fittings and to replace/repair them would mean un-mounting the tank.

We got engine started, but it overheated and no glycol was circulating; best guess was stuck thermostat; while replacing the thermostat I inadvertently hit and closed the fuel tank shutoff valve. We started the engine, it began to surge then stalled.

Visions of many boat units going to new engine flashed through my head. After I calmed down, and then found what I had done, I thought all was well.

I was worried about having damaged the Racor primary fuel filter by the engine sucking on it with the fuel valve closed: changed that, cleaned out the bowl, then decided it would be best/prudent to change the secondary fuel filter on the engine.

Problem was that the old filer had 3 sealing rings and the official Perkins part I had to replace it only had 2; I had also found gunk in the heat exchanger; I booked 1 hr of Gartside mechanic to confirm I had proper filter (yes, it seems that mechanic that changed the last filter left in a sealing ring!). He suggested that the gunk in the exchanger was from old hoses breaking down.

Since he was here, he walked me through proper bleeding and the engine is now running, confirmed no glycol leaks and we now officially are back to square one with operating engine and hot/cold running water.

This accounts for many hours head down,ass-up in locker which hasn't done much for my not-so supple upper body.

Y valve in the head:

After getting this awful job all back together, we had a minor leak when the tank filled up. One of the hose connections is leaking on the run from the tank to the Y-valve.

I had noticed that on the old valve, they had ground off the hose barbs to make a better seal and ( so I thought) make it possible to actually get the hose onto the fitting in tight quarters with such stiff hose ( sewage hose is very stiff!). So, without test fitting it , I got out the trusty Dremol tool and did the same. It appears that the new Y valve is slightly smaller diameter, so of course, by removing some of the barbs, i've made the fitting too loose; the hose clamps can't compress the stiff sewage hose to make seal.

I have 2 choices: try to put enough sealing tape and sealant and hope for no leaks or suck it up, buy yet another Y valve ( less than 1/10 of a boat unit) and redo the whole shebang.... I think it will be the later; else I'll constantly be waiting for the next holding tank leak.

Update to the Update: decided to take no chances and installed new valve last night (April 30); 3 hrs bent up in the head, but no leaks now.

Steering Column:

After talking with various "experts" the best I can determine is that some portions of the chain links are sticking and that it is not a problem to worry about. While taking it apart I was close to sheering off the machine screws that hold down the compass; obviously they have not been removed for some time.

Since they are steel screws into an aluminum housing, they should be coated to retard corrosion that will lock in fittings and make them impossible to remove. They should be coated with zinc chromate paste; Robin made the rounds of the chandlery's : no one had any or knew what should be used.

I bumped into Brent at Blackline Marine [ when you spend boat units, you get to know many repair types!...he did the new rigging on Tatoosh a few boat units ago!]

I asked him what they used: zinc chromate, I asked who stocks it: no one, they buy it from england! He agreed to sell me small tube. I send Robin over with the ship's Toonie collections ( kept for showers,etc when at marinas) thinking it can't be more than $12. Turns out I forgot the old adage about how prices go up when you add the word "marine"...this stuff is even worse since it is used both in marine and in aviation.....tube was $39. There is enough here that I'll leave this tube to some lucky winner in my will.

Other News:

Turns out the life raft that came with the boat is actually a used aircraft type life raft; Robin took it into a life raft re-packer and they told us the bad news. Not only is it not a marine raft but it is very old: basically it is trash and we need to look at new raft..... how many boat units will this turn out to be??

Plan now will be to ramp down, close up and return later in May to finish the rest of the TODO list.

We have taken great delight in using our pink highlighter to mark off the DONE items; The score on the list is 29 priority items gone, 24 remaining. Not bad considering that the water heater battle was not even on the list!!